DELPHI, Oracle of. - It is the principal oracle of Greece, situated in Phocis, at 573 m. above sea level, on the southern slope of Parnassus, near the Cassotis spring, over a fissure in the ground (γάσμα γῆς).
The first divinity to occupy the place, destined for so great a mantic future, was the Earth (Γῆ), represented by the serpent Python (Πύθων), a name also applied to the rocky locality; which is explained by the nature of the ground communicating with the subsoil. The prehistoric sanctity of the place is documented by finds from the Minoan era. To this place, after the temporary lordship of Poseidon, who succeeded the Earth, came a Doric tribe of Apollo worshippers, which installed its god there; and he, having conquered the serpent, became lord of the oracle.
At first the responses there were given by external signs: the song and flight of birds, pebbles; but at a later time this lower type of mantic art was replaced by the intuitive kind, that is, by inspiration of the god, who gave the responses through the mouth of his particular priestess, a young virgin, the Pythia.
This change seems due to the influence of the Dionysiac religion, which reached D. very early and is characterized by the sacred frenzy that seizes the devotees of the Bacchic cult. The scholiast of Pindar (Pyth., 297) considers Dionysus even as prior to Apollo in the possession of D. There, every two years, the festival of Dionysus was celebrated, and within the sanctuary his tomb was venerated; there, on the rear pediment of the temple, a Dionysiac thiasos was depicted, and the three months of winter, during the absence of Apollo, who departed for the Hyperborean regions, were consecrated to him. Aeschylus (frgm. 341) calls Apollo "the Bacchic one, rouser of mania, adorned with ivy."
An essential part of the sanctuary was the underground chamber of the temple (ἄθυστος) where there were: 1) the omphalos (= navel), symbol of the ideal religious center of the earth, a cylindrical stone ending in an ovoid shape, covered with fillets either arranged in a net or sloping, which recalled the tomb of the serpent Python conquered by Apollo and was the symbol of the sanctuary; for this reason Apollo is often found seated upon it in depictions; 2) the tripod, a tall support consisting of three rods held together by a ring, which supported a basin (λέβης) on which the Pythia sat at the moment of the divine access (Plut., Pyth. orac., 6), after having drunk the water of the Cassotis spring and taken a laurel leaf into her mouth; 3) the tomb of Dionysus. The consultants (θεοπρόσου) heard the words of the Pythia without being able to see her.
The oracle was presided over by a priesthood recruited from the Delphic aristocracy, consisting of two ἱερεῖς who assisted the Pythia, collected and interpreted the words and sounds emitted by her, often so ambiguous as to earn Apollo the title of λοξίας, the "oblique," which were then formulated in hexameters or iambics, although prose was not excluded either. There were also the ὅσοι "pure ones," five in number, assigned to the consultations, and the ἐξεγέται "exegetes," who explained to the questioners the response obtained, confirming it by divinatory procedures.
The consultations took place, at one time, once a year, on the 7th day of the month of Bysios (March-April), and later once a month, with the three winter months sacred to Dionysus deducted.
The maintenance of the sanctuary depended on the contribution of the Greek states; for this reason, at politically decisive moments, the oracle always had a vacillating policy: it "medized" during the Persian wars (Herodotus, VII, 140), "philippized" during the action of Philip of Macedon (Dem., Or., 58, 37); it generally opposed tyrants, given its eminently aristocratic and conservative spirit.
Its action was very beneficial in directing the colonization of the Greeks, who asked counsel of the oracle, a center of first-rate observation owing to the influx of peoples of every origin. It also had an indirectly legislative activity, by choosing the legislators of a city or approving their work; it also provided for the manumission of slaves, who, having paid a sum before witnesses, became free inasmuch as they were attached to the sanctuary, which guaranteed their acquired freedom.
Around the sanctuary an Amphictyony was constituted
(ἀμφι-κτίονες "those who dwell nearby") formed by the representatives of the various Greek tribes (not cities): the amphictyons exercised supervision of the sanctuary, organized the Pythian games in honor of Apollo, judged disputes between the amphictyonic cities, and thereby contributed to giving the Greeks a sense of their unity beyond civic barriers, and to making D. felt as the common hearth (κοινή, ἐστία: Plut. Arist., 20) of the Greek people.
Besides these political merits, the oracle also contributed to refining morals, reserving to itself the judgment of blood vengeance (Orestes is guilty in the external forum as a matricide, but is judged innocent in the internal forum), educating the moral conscience of the individual: the maxims are well known: "know thyself" (γνῶθι σαυτόν), "avoid every excess" (μηδὲν ἄγαν), flee "insolent arrogance" (ὕβρις).
After the so-called Sacred War (600-590) between D. and the men of Crisa, in whose territory stood the sanctuary from which the Crisaeans claimed tribute, the latter acquired its autonomy, which opened for it an era of great prosperity attested by the buildings that flourished around the sanctuary. The Macedonian interference, which was also exercised at D., caused the fame of the sanctuary to decline; it moreover suffered a twofold invasion of the Gauls (279 and 109 B.C.) and then Roman occupation.
The emperors strove to restore the cult and the sanctuary. Augustus reorganized the amphictyony, Domitian restored the sanctuary stripped by Nero, Trajan increased the amphictyons to 30 with the intention of constituting an administrative council for the province of Macedonia and Achaea; Hadrian and the Antonines contributed to the reflowering of the city. During this period Plutarch was for twenty years, from 105 to 126, priest of the sanctuary and has left us three writings on it.
Bibliography7 works
Nicola Turchi